Targeted Drug Delivery to Improve Cancer Therapy, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Delivery and Controlled Release".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2025 | Viewed by 1768

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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA
Interests: targeted drug delivery; nanoscale dosage forms; nucleic acid therapeutics; small-molecule drugs; antineoplastics; immunological agents
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasing the localization of drugs to hematologic or solid tumor cancer cells by targeted drug delivery holds great promise to improve the treatment of cancer with conventional and nonconventional drugs. Given the broad range of drug types, cancers, and tumor heterogeneities, the successful clinical application of targeted drug delivery will continue to require the preclinical development of multiple drug delivery approaches for selection and further clinical development.

This Special Issue seeks to highlight original research articles and reviews on the preclinical development of targeted drug delivery approaches to improve the pharmacotherapy of cancer with conventional and nonconventional drugs. Research areas include any approaches that improve the treatment of preclinical cancer models with small-molecule (<900 Da) or macromolecule drugs (e.g., biomolecules) (e.g., increase potency and/or efficacy, decrease toxicity) by increasing the localization to the site of action in hematologic cancer cells or solid tumor/tumor-associated cells in primary and/or secondary tumors.

Dr. Joseph Anthoney Vetro
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • local drug delivery
  • systemic drug delivery
  • physical drug delivery
  • passive drug delivery
  • targeted drug delivery
  • nanoscale dosage forms
  • nanomedicine

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Research

27 pages, 3833 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Indisulam on Human Immune Effector Cells: Is a Combination with Immunotherapy Feasible?
by Lisa Arnet, Lisabeth Emilius, Annett Hamann, Maria Carmo-Fonseca, Carola Berking, Jan Dörrie and Niels Schaft
Pharmaceutics 2025, 17(3), 368; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics17030368 - 14 Mar 2025
Viewed by 545
Abstract
Background: As a modulator of pre-mRNA splicing, the anti-cancer agent indisulam can induce aberrantly spliced neoantigens, enabling immunologic anti-tumor activity. Consequently, combining indisulam with immunotherapy is expected to be a promising novel approach in cancer therapy. However, a prerequisite for such a combination [...] Read more.
Background: As a modulator of pre-mRNA splicing, the anti-cancer agent indisulam can induce aberrantly spliced neoantigens, enabling immunologic anti-tumor activity. Consequently, combining indisulam with immunotherapy is expected to be a promising novel approach in cancer therapy. However, a prerequisite for such a combination is that immune effector cells remain functional and unharmed by the chemical. Methods: To ensure the immunocompetence of human immune effector cells is maintained, we investigated the influence of indisulam on ex vivo-isolated T cells and monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) from healthy donors. We used indisulam concentrations from 0.625 µM to 160 µM and examined the impact on the following: (i) the activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells by CD3-crosslinking and via a high-affinity TCR, (ii) the cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells, (iii) the maturation process of moDCs, and (iv) antigen-specific CD8+ T cell priming. Results: We observed dose-dependent inhibitory effects of indisulam, and substantial inhibition occurred at concentrations around 10 µM, but the various functions of the immune system exhibited different sensitivities. The weaker activation of T cells via CD3-crosslinking was more sensitive than the stronger activation via the high-affinity TCR. T cells remained capable of killing tumor cells after treatment with indisulam up to 40 µM, but T cell cytotoxicity was impaired at 160 µM indisulam. While moDC maturation was also rather resistant, T cell priming was almost completely abolished at a concentration of 10 µM. Conclusions: These effects should be considered in possible future combinations of immunotherapy with the mRNA splicing inhibitor indisulam. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Targeted Drug Delivery to Improve Cancer Therapy, 2nd Edition)
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